Lee Grose, owner of Packwood Ace Hardware for more than 20 years, shows off his store's diverse offerings, from pipe fittings to toys and household supplies.
Lee Grose, owner of Packwood Ace Hardware, replaces a piece of pipe to its rightful container on the shelf. Grose bought the store nearly 24 years ago, and said it was his lifelong dream to own a hardware store.
Packwood Ace Hardware, owned by Lee Grose for almost 24 years, is located at 104 Rainier Avenue North in Packwood. In addition to traditional items found in a hardware store, the store caries camping gear, toys and other supplies for outdoors enthusiasts visiting the area.
Whether you’re looking for pipe fittings, camping equipment, motor oil or kitchen supplies, Packwood Ace Hardware has probably got it in stock.
“I’ve got a little bit of a lot of stuff,” said owner Lee Grose.
Grose was living in Alaska in 1986 when he learned a hardware store had been built in Packwood. He said he was a little disappointed, because he wanted to be the one to run a hardware store in the town. The store expanded in 1989 to its current footprint.
When Grose returned to Packwood, he got the opportunity to buy the store. It’s still going strong after nearly 24 years, he said.
“It started as kind of a dream, many years ago,” he said. “I worked in a grocery store in high school. I liked retail sales. But I really like helping people.”
Grose, a former county commissioner, said Ace’s motto — “The Helpful Place” — really describes how he tries to run his business.
“I think that’s what you have to be,” he said. “I think the small stores in the big markets have to realize it.”
The store includes a wide variety of products, such as lawn and garden equipment and parts, plants and potting soil, paint — all mixed in the store — motor oil, kitchen supplies and camping gear and toys. The store’s free popcorn is particularly popular with locals, Grose said.
“I can only stock so much inventory,” he said. “I’ve only got 3,000 square feet.”
Grose said he and the store’s four other employees help customers solve problems and find answers to their questions as well.
“It’s kind of full service. We cut pipe, we cut keys,” he said. “If you want 1 foot of a piece of pipe, we’ll cut 1 foot for you.
Grose said his biggest sellers are paint, which is all mixed in-house, as well as electrical and plumbing supplies and lumber. The Packwood store doesn’t often sell large volumes of lumber, instead focusing on customers with small do-it-yourself projects.
“People come in and buy something (and) they leave with a smile,” Grose said. “That’s … our reward.”
But it’s not all business at Packwood Ace Hardware.
“People bump into each other here and stop to have a conversation,” Grose said. “It’s really kind of neat.”
While the store often serves as an impromptu meeting place for locals, many of Grose’s customers are out-of-towners in Packwood for the weekend.
“Probably about 50 percent of my business is not local,” he said Saturday. “I don’t know if I’ve seen a local person in the store yet this morning.”
Packwood Ace Hardware is in a unique situation, because it doesn’t really compete with big, discount stores.
“The nearest big box store is 75 miles away,” Grose said.
Business is so good in Packwood Grose has considered expanding the hardware store.
“I would really like to expand it except I’m not sure if I’m young enough to do it,” Grose, 65, said.
